11/14/2008 14h56
With new project, Railway Ring sees some action
Valor Econômico - 11/14/2008
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and São Paulo Governor José Serra (PSDB) are close to a deal to make the project of the São Paulo road ring (
Ferroanel) become real and release the railway traffic in the biggest metropolitan region of the country. The works are budgeted at approximately R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 695.6 million) and should be paid by the Federal and State Governments, in addition to the participation of the MRS Logística company. The undertaking should eliminate the difficult relationship between passenger and cargo trains. As ordered by da Silva, a team of senior officers of the Transport Ministry and of the National Agency of Land Transports (ANTT) did an in-depth study of the negotiations and even flew over the center of São Paulo. Then a full change in the original project, which foresaw the construction of a 66-km railway ring between Campo Limpo Paulista (where the trains that come from the region of Campinas arrive) and Engenheiro Manoel Feio (in the way to the port of Santos), was consolidated. This route was called the North Stretch of the Rail Ring, and it was the preferred option of the Federal Government. But the government of São Paulo saw the works of the South Stretch as priority, a project that would create a railway ring under the metropolitan region, connecting Rio Grande da Serra to Evangelista de Souza. In the middle of the discussions, a third solution appeared: the separation of the rails, through the construction of a second rail next to the existent one, between Rio Grande da Serra and Campo Limpo Paulista, to definitively separate the rails used by cargo from those used by passengers. Now, the perspective of two simultaneous or almost simultaneous investments is used: the separation of the rails, crossing under the Luz Station and the South Stretch. For CPTM, the advantage is obvious: the rails of the line 7/Ruby (Luz-Campo Limpo Paulista) will be duplicated, as well as those of line 10/Turquoise (Luz-Rio Grande da Serra), giving more efficiency to the collective transport network that connects the city's center to the suburbs. One line is exclusively dedicated to passenger trains. The other to cargo trains. The separation of the rails and the South Stretch will give relief to the growing cargo flow. Analyzing the potential railway demand, the bank of development foresees an increase from 52.8 million tons in 2007 to 99.4 million tons in 2023. The volume of containers transported over rails will double in the period and there will be relevant increase of sugar, alcohol, soybean, sand and fertilizers cargo, among other products.
